Mythopoeia, Visions, Transcendence, and the Journey of the Rhetorical Refugee
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The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 2019 Tracing Sehnsucht to Place: Mythopoeia, Visions, Transcendence, and the Journey of the Rhetorical Refugee G. Brandon Knight University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Knight, G. Brandon, "Tracing Sehnsucht to Place: Mythopoeia, Visions, Transcendence, and the Journey of the Rhetorical Refugee" (2019). Dissertations. 1636. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1636 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TRACING SEHNSUCHT TO PLACE: MYTHOPOEIA, VISIONS, TRANSCENDENCE, AND THE JOURNEY OF THE RHETORICAL REFUGEE by G. Brandon Knight A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School, the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Communication at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by: Dr. Wendy Atkins-Sayre, Committee Chair Dr. Casey Maugh-Funderburk Dr. John Meyer Dr. Laura Stengrim Dr. Paul Strait ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ Dr. Wendy Atkins-Sayre Dr. Casey Maugh- Dr. Karen S. Coats Committee Chair Funderburk Dean of the Graduate School Director of School May 2019 COPYRIGHT BY G. Brandon Knight 2019 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT This dissertation seeks to explicate a rhetorical conceptualization from C. S. Lewis’s notion of longing, or sehnsucht, in hopes of extending its employment to two other contemporary contexts—Christian Hedonism and American Humanism. To do so, I utilize the method of rhetorical criticism to analyze Lewis’s most famous sermon entitled The Weight of Glory. Following this paradigm chapter, I then compare uses of longing within the contemporary evangelical philosophy called Christian Hedonism initiated during the eighties through the seminal text entitled Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. In doing so, I uncover distinct aspects of longing within a metaphysical framework of rhetorical transcendence. Through the lens of Betz’s (1985) Theology of Hope, the sacred substance of joy emerged as a form of immanence offering sustenance to participants for their continued progression to the Christian Other. Finally, I rhetorically analyzed the three manifestoes of the American Humanist Association (AHA) as a means to discover uses of longing within a philosophical framework totally absent of supernaturalism. Distinctively, humanists, like Christian hedonists, utilize longing in relation to imagining a futuristic world community. Through this rhetorical vision, the humanistic discourse of the manifestoes is shown to be a form of religious rhetoric in that it reveals the world as already in transition through constitutive rhetoric. The ultimate finding of this dissertation demonstrates that the employment of longing as a rhetorical motive in these three scenarios all inherently aim for a place, or topos, thus innovating past perceptions of rhetorical transcendence. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the help and guidance of Dr. Wendy Atkins-Sayre. It was you who first taught me about rhetoric in my undergraduate days, ultimately leading me to this point. Additionally, you encouraged my scholarly work by requesting that I pursue rhetorical studies in graduate work as graduation approached. Although you may not remember those classes or conversations, I can attest that it is the small things that have allowed me to get to this point. Seeds ultimately grow into trees. Thank you for your interest and persistence in my education. Your time and investment have made me a better person. iii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to Ashley, my wife and best friend. Who knew so many years ago that our lives would land on this path? I still remember taking you to prom and stealing your heart with my dance moves. It took a little bit of time; but God has a unique way of working things out. At this point, our whole marriage—eight years— has involved me being in academia. For you, I know this has been trying; and I am forever grateful that you have persevered alongside me. You are my greatest source of joy and ultimately the reason for my success. I love you, Ash. To my girls, Cadence, Emery, and Eden: although you do not realize it, this dissertation is for you. As you will find, when love is involved, people often go to great lengths to show its depth. My time at school has been just that for all of you. I love you. To my mom, you are my heart. Despite us being physically distant for quite some time, you have proven yourself to be the true communicator in the family and thus ever- present in my life. Thank you for always being there for me and our family. I love you, BGB. To my dad, you gave me a model to follow. You are the hardest working person I know. I hope you realize how proud it makes me to be your son. I love you, FF. To my sister, I am often nostalgic for the days when we built forts and had adventures together. Such pain only demonstrates how much I care for you and long to have more time with you. I love you, KK. To Christ, may my rhetoric always be pleasing to you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. x CHAPTER 1 – LONGING FOR DEPTH .......................................................................... 1 The Religious and Secular Divide .................................................................................. 5 Two Distinct Voices ................................................................................................... 6 Modern-Day Echoes ................................................................................................. 10 The American Humanist Association ....................................................................... 13 Christian Hedonism .................................................................................................. 15 Transcendence and Fragmentation ............................................................................... 17 The Sublime in the Supernatural............................................................................... 17 The Sublime in Nature .............................................................................................. 23 Rhetorical Criticism ...................................................................................................... 25 Chapter Layout.............................................................................................................. 27 Contributions of the Study ............................................................................................ 28 CHAPTER II – C. S. LEWIS AND THE WEIGHT OF GLORY ................................... 30 An Inescapable Reality ................................................................................................. 33 Lewis the Myth Maker .............................................................................................. 37 v The Demythologization of Reality............................................................................ 39 Myth Theory and Mythopoeism ................................................................................... 41 Sehnsucht and the Search for Joy ............................................................................. 43 Using Mythopoeia as a Critical Lens ............................................................................ 52 The Rhetoric of Glory ................................................................................................... 55 A Logos of Pathos ..................................................................................................... 55 Mythopoiesis: Experience and the Christian Mythos ............................................... 59 Implications and Conclusion......................................................................................... 64 CHAPTER III - DESIRING GOD AND CHRISTIAN HEDONISM: AWAKENING AN IMMANENT JOY ............................................................................................................ 67 Rhetorical Transcendence and Religion ....................................................................... 69 Burke’s Logology and Theology .............................................................................. 71 Kantian Philosophy and Hedonism ........................................................................... 72 The Joy in Transcendence ............................................................................................. 74 Betz’s Theology of Hope .......................................................................................... 74 Christian Hedonism .................................................................................................. 76 The End of the Twentieth Century...............................................................................